Conventional cameras use image sensors with an integrated color filter array (“CFA”) to capture a color image. The CFA is typically designed to have a Bayer pattern (RGGB) with each pixel on the image sensor subtended by a single color filter element above with a one-to-one correspondence. For example, a 5 megapixel (MP) image sensor includes 1.25 M red pixels, 1.25 M blue pixels, and 2.5 M green pixels. To obtain a full 5 MP color image from this image sensor, a demosaicing process (color interpolation) is required to reconstruct the color image from the incomplete color sample output. The demosaicing process inherently compromises the image quality, particularly the sharpness.
Demosaicing algorithms exist, which strive to improve image sharpness. However, there is a fundamental limit of outcome due to the incomplete color sample from the image sensor. There is often a tradeoff between computing speed and image quality with these algorithms.